Swimming & Diving 4/9/2010 12:00:00 AM

Oakland Brings Home The Summit League Title

April 9, 2010

ROCHESTER, Mich. - The Oakland University women's swimming and diving team started slowly but finished the 2009-10 season on top of the Summit League once again. The Golden Grizzlies (6-3) scored 990 points to win their 11th straight Summit title and 19th league championship overall. They won 16 events at the league meet, won all four individual awards, had 17 all-league swimmers, won athlete of the week nine times, had five NCAA "B" Standards, 24 additions to the Top 10 list and broke three school records.

"We had a lot of questions about the 2009-10 season," said head coach Pete Hovland. "Can we duplicate the success from 2008-09, how will we compete at the championship meet away from home, will the freshmen step up? All of those questions and more were answered. Our team chemistry improved with each competition. We had a very resounding top to bottom team performance on the opening day of the league meet. We had one athlete from each class win an event which set the tone for the rest of the weekend. The one down note at conference was that we were going to be losing senior Sarah Ludema, Agnes Solan and Marie Stuve. I'm excited about our future though with the performance of our freshman."

Solan closed out an outstanding career by being named The Summit League Swimmer of the Meet. She won the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events (53.99, 2:00.72, respectively) and the 200 individual medley (2:00.41). Solan hit the NCAA "B" Cut in the 100 back and 200 IM and broke the meet and school record in the 100 back. She also swam on the championship 400 medley relay (3:45.12, meet record), 200 medley relay (1:42.53, school and meet record, NCAA "B" Cut) and the 400 and 800 freestyle relays.

Solan swam 1:47.92 on the opening leg of the 800 free relay to set a school and league record and hit the NCAA "B" Cut for the 200 free. Her three individual wins gives her nine in her career, tying her with Tara Berringer (Oakland) for the most in league history.

Freshman Sandra Czerska and JulieAnne Stears shared Summit League Newcomer of the Year. Czerska won the 100 and 200 butterfly events (54.84, 2nd fastest in school history, 1:59.55, 2nd fastest in OU history, NCAA "B" Cut) and swam on three championship relay teams. Stears won the 400 IM (4:27.06) and the 500 and 1650 free events (4:58.10, 17:09.41, respectively) with all three times ranked among the Top 10 in school history.

Junior Chelsea Oates was named Summit League Diver of the Meet for the second time in her career. She scored a meet record 289.20 points to win the 1-meter springboard and was second on the 3-meter board (301.55). At the NCAA Zone Diving Championships, Oates qualified for the 1-meter board and missed the final at 3-meter by six points.

The 200 medley relay team of Solan, sophomore Johanna Gustafsson, Czerska and sophomore Alyssa Vela swam 1:42.53 to win the league title. That time was a school record and hit the NCAA "B" Standard. The same foursome won the 400 nedley relay with a time of 3:45.12, missing the school record by 3/100th of a second.

SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

100 Back - Agnes Solan

200 Back - Agnes Solan

100 Fly - Sandra Czerska

200 Fly - Sandra Czerska

50 Free - Alyssa Vela

100 Free - Alyssa Vela

500 Free - JulieAnne Stears

1650 Free - JulieAnne Stears

200 IM - Agnes Solan

400 IM - JulieAnne Stears

1-M Springboard - Chelsea Oates